The baseball batting training aid of the present invention is of the same general type as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,206,195. As stated in that patent, a problem in teaching batting in baseball is that the player can neither view his own performance, nor feel to any appreciable extent the difference between a proper and improper swing. Virtually the only criteria the batter has to judge his performance is by observing the end results. This leads to difficulties, because the player often continues to practice bad habits, making them progressively more difficult to correct.
In order for a batter to be a good hitter he must train his hands to use the bat barrel properly. The bat barrel controls where and how hard the ball is to be hit. If a batter does not use his hands correctly he cannot become a good hitter. The batter's hands control the bat barrel in basically three (3) different ways. First they create bat speed. That means that the faster the batter can get the bat from his stance to contact with the ball, the greater the leverage and power he will have. To do this batter must move from the inside out position where his bottom hand (hand closest to knob or end of bat) is in a position where the back of the hand is facing up or towards the sky and his top hand (hand closest to the bat barrel) is in a position where the palm is facing up or towards the sky, to a position where the back of the bottom hand and the palm of the top hand are facing in the direction the ball is being hit. This action of the hands "throws" the barrel of the bat out in front of the body creating bat speed. The quicker this can be done the better chance the batter has of making good contact with the ball.
Second, the hands control where contact is made with the ball. When the hands work together they thrust the bat barrel in front of the body and towards the pitcher, putting it (the bat barrel) in a good leverage position to get maximum power and leverage when the ball is hit.
Third, the batter must time his swing so that contact is made when the pitched ball enters the good contact zone. To do this a great deal of skill is necessary to control the bat barrel until the exact moment the ball gets into batter's good hitting zone. If batters swings the bat before ball reaches the contact zone the bat barrel will be ahead of the ball and poor or no contact will be made. This is called "rolling the wrist". If batter swings too late or after the ball passes the contact area he will not get his bat barrel out in front and will not have any leverage or bat speed working. This called a "jam". Pitchers work very hard in order to keep batters off balance, and batters must spend a great deal of time perfecting their timing.
The batting training aid disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,206,195 represents a vehicle for enabling batters to practice their swings, so that their hands are in the proper position at point of contact with the ball. But, it was found that to use this earlier training aid the batter would have to know how to swing the bat in order to get any benefit from the training aid. If batter did not know how to swing a bat he could swing the prior art training aid incorrectly and still catch the ball. This, of course, allowed him to practice poor fundamentals and not only not improve his hitting, but to progressively get worse by reinforcing bad techniques. So while this previous training aid was better than anything else on the market at that time, it left a lot to be desired.
The batting training aid of the present invention constitutes a vast improvement over the training aid described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,206,195 in that the handle of the training aid of the present invention is shaped to define an angle to its remote end, so that the training aid must be gripped by the batter with the palm of the bottom hand extending over the angle and with the top hand on the intermediate portion of the handle. This causes the hands of the batter to be angled with respect to one another so that the training aid is grasped along the fingers giving maximum flexibility in the wrists, instead of being gripped on the palms of the hands where the tendency is to lock the wrists. This allows the batter to create maximum bat speed. This angle puts the top hand ahead of the bottom hand at the point of contact forcing the batter to swing through the ball. However, of the approach or inside out position the top hand is slightly below the bottom hand. This forces the batter to exaggerate the action of the top hand in "throwing" the bat barrel. (Top hand controls the bat barrel). By getting the feeling of the action of the top hand, the batter learns how to control the bat barrel. The action of the top hand is a very important technique which is necessary in becoming a good hitter.
A second angle is formed in the end of the handle of the batting aid of the present invention adjacent to the frame to displace the axis of the angled extremity of the handle from the plane of the frame. This puts the opening portion of the frame (corresponding to the bat barrel) in a straight line with the bottom hand as would be a bat barrel. This is very important when working on the timing aspect of the swing. If the net opening was offset, timing would not be similar to a baseball bat and instead of batter improving his timing it would impede his timing.